Congress and DHS Funding

Portland, Maine police arrested nine anti‑ICE protesters Tuesday after they refused to leave Sen. Susan Collins’ downtown office, where about 50 demonstrators packed the eighth floor of One Canal Plaza to demand she use her power as the Senate’s top appropriator to cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officers said the group was repeatedly warned they would face criminal trespass charges if they didn’t disperse; nine people, ages 31 to 65, chose to stay, sang 'We Shall Overcome' in the hallway and asked to be arrested. The protesters, including the Rev. Christine Dyke of Gorham First Parish Congregational Church, called for an end to ICE’s latest deportation operation in Maine, arguing it is terrifying asylum‑seeking immigrants who fled their home countries in fear. Collins, who has been defending the pending DHS spending bill that Democrats want to block after the fatal Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis, said Monday that most of the measure’s money goes to non‑immigration and non‑border operations and warned that defeating it risks a 'dangerous and detrimental' government shutdown. The Portland sit‑in adds pressure on Collins from the left at home as national Democrats try to leverage ICE tactics and Trump’s interior‑enforcement surge to reshape Homeland Security funding.